Graham Smyth

Adam Murray will not sign new players in January if it will upset the morale of the group who have got themselves into the League Two play-off positions.

The Stags boss admitted he has had a ‘brief’ look at what might be possible in terms of additions to his small squad.

But he insists there won’t be signings for the sake of increasing the squad size.

“We’ve had a brief look,” he said. “I imagine a lot of the top seven to 10 will strengthen.

“We’ll sit down in a few weeks and see if we need to strengthen anywhere.

“What I won’t do is bring people in to force people out.

“I’ve got a squad of 18/19 outfield senior players, any of them can go in and they’ve been fantastic for me, I won’t be bringing players in for the sake of numbers.”

But if Murray feels a player will help Stags to stay in the promotion hunt, he’ll sit down with the powers that be and thrash out the possibility of recruiting.

“If there’s an area we feel might get us to the next step and might keep us in the top seven or even push us into the top three then that will be a conversation the chairman, the board and myself will have to have, and ultimately they’ll have the final say on what we can do,” he said.

“You can look and think he’d be brilliant in my team, but there’s a lot of dynamics that come with that.

“If there are one or two people who come into the eyeline and we think they fit into our group first and foremost as people, and then as footballers they’ll improve us and have an impact on the second half of the season then we’ll sit down and weigh it up.”

Murray lauded the versatility of his tight-knit squad, who travel to Cambridge on Saturday looking to maintain or even improve on their seventh-place position.

“Us being in the play-offs at the minute has been built on a real unity. We have a small squad but we love that, it’s by choice.

“You suffer with suspensions and injuries but because we have a multi-functional squad, signing players who can play two or three positions that was in view of the worst case scenarios.

“You look at the last few weeks we’ve lost our balance a little bit with our two full-backs out.

“We’ve been privileged to get Blair Adams and balance one side up, but we’re playing a centre-half on the other side so you do lose a bit of your flow.

“But you have to get through that and we’ve got people in our team who can play different positions and not just do a job, be effective there.”

Saturday’s hosts Cambridge have had a resurgence of late under recently appointed manager Shaun Derry, winning their last three games.

But Murray’s Mansfield are full of confidence: “We’ve gone into every game this season thinking we can beat everybody, that hinges on confidence and not getting too cocky.

“We have a real belief that we can achieve this season. Cambridge have got good momentum but we’re a very good side on our day and we’ll go there to win.”

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